


The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

by Spacecadet72



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, F/M, Gun Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-23 02:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15596547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecadet72/pseuds/Spacecadet72
Summary: Ladybug is partnered with Chat Noir for her next mission, but finds him just so obnoxious. When things go wrong on the mission, she is forced to re-examine just how she feels about him.





	The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for day 10 of AU Yeah August on tumblr. The prompt was Secret Agent AU. 
> 
> This one was such fun to write, with the emotional character stuff taking precedence over the mission stuff. (That's mostly handwaved.) If you're here for mission stuff, I'm sorry, but at least there's feeling realizations, right?
> 
> Title from Hamlet.

Marinette sat in the conference room, only half listening as Alya briefed her on her next assignment. The details were simple and she'd get the briefing in hard copy anyway.

She was just so tired. She'd been on back to back missions twice in the past two weeks and now the agency was sending her out again.

She wondered if Alya would notice if she closed her eyes for a minute.

"--paired with Chat Noir on this mission."

Marinette's eyes flew open as she caught that last sentence. Chat Noir was an agent from another agency they teamed up with on occasion and when they did, he always seemed teamed up with her.

"I knew that would get your attention," Alya said with a smirk as Marinette groaned.

Chat was a skilled agent and they made a good team, but he was just so...obnoxious.

"Did you pass on my feedback about his unprofessional behavior?"

"You mean the puns?" Alya asked, her smile wide.

Marinette nodded, already knowing what the answer would be.

Alya shook her head. "Nope," she said before turning back to the briefing.

Marinette stifled a groan.

* * *

 

"Are you ready, Ladybug?" Tikki's high pitched voice came through the earpiece in Marinette's right ear. Tikki, back at headquarters, was with Marinette on every mission, and while Marinette could handle herself in the field, she didn't know what she'd do without her.

"If only you knew how ready," Marinette muttered, still frustrated about her assigned partner.

Tikki laughed, having heard about how obnoxious Chat Noir was already several times. "You'll be fine. He's a good partner."

Marinette sighed. That was true. She would have worked harder to not work with him if he'd been an actual hindrance to her work. But he wasn't. He was an excellent agent and didn't act like he was automatically better than her just because he was a man. And when he stopped joking around and got serious, it was actually nice to work with him.

"See," Tikki said after a few beats of silence from Marinette. "I'm right."

"You always are, Tikki," Marinette with a small grin.

"Speaking of Tikki, Plagg says to tell her hi."

Marinette looked over to see Chat Noir walking towards her, a similar dark earpiece in his own ear. As always, he looked good in the standard issue skintight suit, a thought that Marinette always tried to ignore.

"Did you hear that, Tikki?" Marinette asked, her smile growing. Plagg and Tikki were dancing around each other, but nothing had happened between each other yet. There were even a couple of pools going on when they would get together.

Tikki let out an affectionate sigh. "I heard. Tell him hi back for me."

Marinette let out a small laugh and turned her attention back to Chat. "Tikki says hi."

"Plagg will be pleased to hear that," Chat said with a smirk. "Hey, Bugaboo."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I told you not to call me that, Kitty."

Her attempt at an annoying nickname only made his smile wider. "My apologies, My Lady."

Marinette shook her head, trying to rid herself of her annoyance and focus on the task at hand.

"You know the plan?" she asked

Chat nodded. "Until it all falls apart and I follow your lead."

Marinette had to smile at that. The last couple of missions they had partnered up for had gone to hell in a handbasket before they completed their objective, but with some quick thinking and teamwork, they'd managed to pull it off.

"As long as you know who's in charge," she said, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, have no doubt of that, My Lady."

Marinette laughed, forgetting to be annoyed for a moment before they were off, running across the rooftop to get to the next building over.

They were able to get into the building without any problems, the hallways dark and deserted. Marinette had wanted to argue with Alya that she could do this mission by herself, but even just getting into the building had been much easier with two.

Marinette tapped her watch, projecting the building blueprint in front of her. "We'll want the second door on the left--"

A high pitched alarm began sounding and Marinette grimaced. "That wasn't on the schematic."

Chat's grim expression mirrored hers. "We must have had bad intel."

"Freeze!"

Marinette and Chat whirled around at the voice to see as security guard behind them, his gun out and pointed at them.

"Hey, it's okay," Chat said, his voice soft and charming. This wasn't the flirting he laid on thick while they were on missions, this was a soothing voice meant to persuade, and Marinette almost felt herself relaxing at the sound of it.

Chat threw her a glance as he began talking again, and now it was her turn to take his lead. "We're just here to grab something we forgot, so we'll just be going."

While the guard was focused on Chat, Marinette threw what she affectionately referred to as her yo-yo out, catching his arm and causing the guard to stumble. But not before his gun went off.

Chat let out a yelp and went down, clutching his leg.

"Chat!" Marinette cried out as she forced herself to focus on taking out the guard.

Taking a running leap, Marinette wrapped her legs around the guards head, forcing him to the ground. He hit his head as he went down and when she stood up, he was out cold. With that taken care of, and no other guards to deal with, at least not yet n Marinette turned her attention to Chat.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling beside him, her hands hovering over him, not sure what best to do for him.

He nodded, although his smile was forced. "I'm fine, My Lady. He just grazed me," he said, gesturing with his head down to his leg, where Marinette could see blood seeping between Chat's fingers.

"Tikki, we need backup now," Marinette said, putting pressure on the wound on top of Chat's hands.

"Finish the mission first," Chat said, his voice letting her know just how much pain he was in.

"I'm not leaving you."

Chat stared at her more seriously than she had ever seen him. "The mission comes first. You know that."

"There may be more guards on their way," she said, not wanting to leave him like this.

"Ladybug," was all he said, his tone serious and bordering on desperate.

Marinette took in a deep breath. He was right. She nodded. "I will be back," she promised. "And Tikki--"

"I'm on it!"

Marinette nodded again, feeling out of sorts, but forcing herself to focus on why they were here. She was in and out of the room in fifteen minutes, the target, information now stored on a flash drive was safely in her suit pocket. The whole thing was a blur, and she ran on autopilot the entire time, her mind focused on Chat.

When she made it back to where Chat had been shot, he was gone. In his place was Carapace, another agent from Chat’s agency.

“Where is he?” she asked, not surprised to see even the blood that had fallen on the floor gone. The guard was gone too, but Chat’s absence hurt the worst. She knew he was in good hands, but she needed to see him.

“He’s on his way to medical. I’m here to take you to him once you retrieved the item.”

Marinette nodded and patted her pocket. “I’ve got it right here.”

Carapace raised an eyebrow and Marinette bit back an angry retort, instead zipping open the pocket and pulling out the hard drive.

“Can I see him now?”

Carapace nodded, and they were off.

Marinette waited outside of one of the examination rooms at Chat’s agency for several hours while he was in surgery to treat the wound. She could have gone home, there was certainly time for it, but she didn’t like the thought of leaving Chat behind. What if something happened while she was gone?

There was no one else waiting in this hallway and several chairs in a row, so not caring what anyone else thought, Marinette curled up and laid down. She just needed to rest her eyes for a moment.

“Ladybug. Ladybug.”

Marinette’s eyes shot open as someone shook her awake. She was upright in a few seconds, thanks to her training and once she was, she remembered what had happened.

“How is he?” she asked, relaxing once she realized it was just Carapace.

“He’ll live and the doctors said he should make a full recovery. If you want to see him now you can.”

Marinette nodded, and followed Carapace into Chat’s room. He nodded at her as she entered and then closed the door, leaving her and Chat alone.

“The mission?” Chat asked, his voice hoarse.

“Successful,” Marinette said, moving closer to his bed. She didn’t like how small and weak he looked. He was out of his suit and into a hospital gown and it all just looked wrong.

“How are you?” she asked, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. He didn’t protest and she couldn’t bear being farther than that from him.

“I’ve been worse,” he said with a shrug and a grin.

Marinette sighed, feeling tears prick her eyes as she looked at him, everything going blurry.

“Don’t cry for me, My Lady,” he said, his voice hushed as he reached out and took her hand in his. “I’m not worth it.”

“Yes, you are,” she snapped, one then two then three tears falling as everything came crashing down on her at once. “I was so worried for you.”

“Why?”

The question was so simple, but it was one that Marinette had gone over in her mind during the hours she had waited. She had been in the field with injured partners before. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but this was worse somehow. She was more emotional than she usually was. She tried to explain it away as exhaustion, but she couldn’t lie to herself for long.

Marinette shook her head, the tears still falling, her voice thick. “Don’t make me say it.”

Chat grinned again, and Marinette almost rolled her eyes at the sight. “Is it possible that you care for me, Bugaboo?”

Marinette nodded, and buried her face in her hands for a moment, her emotions overcoming her.

“I love you,” she said, her voice breaking when she looked back up.

That was the first time that she had ever seen Chat speechless and she let out a watery laugh at the sight.

“Cat got your tongue?”

It was his turn to laugh, and then he was smiling widely at her, before reaching up and pulling her down for a kiss.

Marinette smiled into his lips. She pulled back after a moment and rested her forehead on his, not wanting to be farther away from him than she had to be.

“For the record,” Chat began and Marinette sat up to look at him more clearly, “I love you too.”

She kissed him again, soft and short before pulling back with a laugh.

“What is it?” Chat asked, a ready smile at his lips, even as he looked at her in confusion.

“I wonder if there was a pool for us.”

Chat laughed. “I know for a fact there was and I’m pretty sure Rena Rouge just won.”

"She's going to be insufferable about this isn't she?"

Chat shrugged. "Oh, definitely, but who cares?" he asked before leaning up to press his lips to hers.


End file.
